UPDATED ON:
Monday, September 15, 2008
05:59 Mecca time, 02:59 GMT

Nigeria rebels declare 'oil war'

Nigeria's main militant group in the Niger Delta has
declared an "oil war" against forgeign-owned oil companies working
in the region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
(Mend) said on Sunday it had launched "hurricane Barbarossa" and
destroyed flow stations and oil pipelines, killing 22 Nigerian
soldiers.

Mend said it was launching the "war" after
government troops attacked one of its positions a day earlier with
aerial and marine forces.

Chevron confirmed one of its oil platforms was
attacked by rebels on Sunday.

"There was an attack on a platform already shut down
due to pipeline problems," an official said.

"There were heavy casualties on the part of the
militants," Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, a military spokesman for the
task force in Rivers state, said.

"We are hopeful they will give up the fight very
soon."

'Hurricane of retaliation'

He said no oil facilities were affected by two
days of heavy fighting.

Violence in the Niger Delta, the centre of the Opec
member's oil sector, has halted a fifth of the country's oil production
since 2006.

Insecurity in Niger Delta has cut oil
output by around a fifth since 2006 [EPA].

The Niger Delta accounts for most of Nigeria's oil
output of two million barrels per day, making it the world's eighth
biggest oil exporter.

Dr Muhammed Ali Zainy, a senior analyst for the
centre for Global Energy studies, told Al Jazeera: "Recently Opec
reduced production by about 520,000 barrels per day but this did not
stop the sliding price of oil.

"This means that the demand for oil is faltering and
that the world economy is weak, therefore any dent in Nigerian oil
production would not have a big impact on the market," he said.

Mend members warned oil firms in the Niger Delta on
Saturday to withdraw their workers in the next 24 hours or face a
"hurricane" of retaliation following a major gun battle with
security forces earlier in the day.

Mend said security forces used helicopters, jet
fighters and more than 20 gunboats in Saturday's fighting.

A security source said soldiers from the army, navy
and air force were involved in the clashes.

Insecurity in the region has cut the West African
country's output by around a fifth since early 2006, when Mend began
blowing up oil pipelines and kidnapping foreign workers, helping push up
world oil prices.

Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Eni, and
Chevron, are among the numerous oil companies operating in the Niger
Delta.